The grinding world of politics from the Los Angeles Daily News

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Villaraigosa’s week: Take the money and run

If you’re looking for Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa this week, just follow the money.

Villaraigosa has 11 fundraisers this week for his 2009 re-election campaign. Tonight, Anschutz Entertainment Group President Tim Leiweke and associates will hold a cocktail reception for Villaraigosa on the stage of the NOKIA Theater. Guests will pay $1,000 to mingle with the mayor in the LA LIVE complex — a project that is getting to keep $270 million in hotel taxes.

On Wednesday, Villaraigosa has a reception fundraisers at noon and then jets to San Francisco that afternoon for champagne reception hosted by former Mayor Willie Brown.

He has one event on Friday and two on Saturday.

But Villaraigosa really hits his stride on Sunday, with four back-to-back fundraisers. He starts at 11:30 a.m. at the Brentwood home of private equity manager Frank Biondi. Then it’s off to a 1:30 p.m. reception at the Beverly Hills home of real estate investor Simon Mani. At 4 p.m., the mayor will schmooze in Westwood with businessman Sim Farar and then he ends the day with a 6 p.m. Beverly Hills reception hosted by the Persian-American community.

Villaraigosa has already held three out-of-state fundraisers. One in Florida, another hosted by Mayor Richard Daley in Chicago and another at the New York City pad of Mayor Michael Bloomberg.

Villaraigosa is racing to raise as much money as he can as early as he can to scare off potential challengers for. Political observers are keeping an eye on mall mogul Rick Caruso, who has toyed with the idea of running. But it’s unlikely that multi-millionaire Caruso would be intimidated by Villaraigosa’s war chest.